Introduction
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| Storyteller | Dirty Girls |
New York, 1977:
It’s pouring rain that night in Central Park. Spike is there, fighting the Slayer Nikki Wood. She punches him in the face, and cartwheels away, kicking him the head with both feet, and knocking Spike back on his ass.
Spike rolls back to his feet and smiles. “Well, all right! You got the moves, don’t you? I’m gonna ride you hard before I put you away, Luv.”
Nikki stands at guard, watching Spike carefully. “You sure about that?” She looks down. “You actually look a little wet and limp to me… And I ain’t your ‘Luv.’” She kicks him.
Spike kicks back, nearly knocking Nikki off her feet. The fight has an audience. Four year old Robin Wood is crouching behind a nearby park bench, watching between the slats, as his mother and Spike fight.
Nikki throws a punch at Spike that he deflects. He grabs her arm and twists it around behind her back. His fangs start to close on her neck.
Robin knocks over the trash basket beside him. Spike is startled by the noise, and turns his head to look. Nikki throws her head back into Spike’s face. She elbows him in the stomach and throws him to the ground.
Nikki pulls a stake from the pocket of her leather duster and throws it at Spike’s heart as he’s getting back to his feet. He catches it between his hands. She stands, catching her breath, waiting to see what his next move will be.
Spike flips the stake around in his hands. “I spent a long time tryin’ to track you down. Don’t really want the dance to end so soon. Do you? Nikki? Music’s just startin’, isn’t it?” He tosses the stake onto the pathway by her feet, and turns and walks away.
Spike hops up onto a low wall and looks back at Nikki through the rain. “And by the way…love the coat.” He drops off the other side of the wall and vanishes.
Robin stands up from his hiding place behind the bench. “Mama?”
Nikki turns to Robin, and kneels in front of him. “You did a good job, baby boy. You stayed down just like Mama told you.”
“Can we go home now?” asks Robin.
Nikki shakes her head. “Uh-uh. It’s not safe there anymore. How about I leave you over at Crowley’s house, and you can play with those spooky doodads that you like?”
“No, I wanna stay with you.”
Nikki glances back over her shoulder, the way Spike had gone before she looks back at Robin. “Yeah, I know you do, baby. But remember, Robin, honey, what we talked about: always gotta work the mission.” Robin looks down. “Look at me. You know I love you. But I got a job to do. The mission is what matters. Right?” Robin slowly nods. “That’s my boy. Come on.”
Nikki stands up and takes Robin’s hand. They start to walk away through the rain together.
Robin suddenly stops and pulls free from his mother’s hand. He runs back to get her stake that’s lying on the path where Spike tossed it.
“Robin!” calls Nikki.
Sunnydale, 2003:
Robin Wood spins around, stake in hand, and kicks the vampire away from him. He dives at the vampire, and gets tossed onto the hood of an old car.
Wood and the vampire aren’t the only ones in the alley. Buffy and Spike are there too, each of them engaged in combat with a vamp of their own. Buffy’s vamp kicks at her head. She ducks and its foot smashes the bricks behind her. She spins and kicks, knocking the vampire away.
Spike has a shovel with a broken handle that he’s using as a weapon. He throws his vamp up against the wall, and drives the shovel blade though its neck, decapitating it.
Buffy punches her vamp away, and looks around. She sees that Robin is getting beaten upon by the vamp he’s fighting. “Spike!” she shouts, and then she nods toward Robin and his vamp. Spike just stands and watches them for a moment, while Buffy goes back to beating on her vampire.
The vamp tosses Robin onto some trash cans. He falls to the ground, and lies there, looking up at the vampire standing over him. The vampire disintegrates into dust, revealing Spike, with the broken off shovel handle where the vamp’s heart had been.
“Little tip, mate…” Spike reaches down to help Wood to his feet. “The stake’s your friend. Don’t be afraid to use it.” Wood just stands and looks at him. “What?”
Wood gives a slight shake of his head. Spike turns away, and walks off down the alley toward where Buffy has her vampire down on the ground and is beating on it.
Wood watches Spike go. His hand is clenched so tightly around the stake in his hand that it’s cutting into his palm. Blood drips to the ground. “Just waiting for my moment,” he says quietly.
Principal Wood pulls the blinds aside on his office window and looks out at the students arriving for the day. His hand is bandaged from where the stake cut into it.
“Situation still normal.” Wood looks around and sees Buffy in his open doorway. She steps through into his office. “Well, or as normal as this school ever seems.”
“So it appears.”
“Well, no fires,” says Buffy. “No one’s head’s going ka-blooey, and the swing choir and the marching band have gone back to their normal, healthy, seething resentment.”
“Yeah, it’s been pretty quiet around here since you shut down that seal.” Wood slowly walks across his office toward her. “You just may have stopped this thing, Buffy.”
“No, it can’t be that easy,” says Buffy.
“You call that easy?”
“Hey, any apocalypse I avert without dying— Yeah, those are the easy ones.”
Wood steps a little closer. “You know, you’re, um, you’re something else, Miss Summers. Now I’ve been watching you when we’re out patrolling, and you’re, um…” He looks a little embarrassed. “You remind me of my, um…”
“Your mother?” asks Buffy.
“Yeah,” says Wood. “Yeah, what I remember of her, anyway.”
“Gotta tell you, not a line every girl likes to hear.” Buffy smiles. “But in this case, compliment taken. Maybe you’re right. Maybe everything is fine.”
“Everything’s terrible!” says Giles. “A total catastrophe!”
Buffy spins and sees him in the door. “Giles, what’s wrong?”
“Have you seen the new library?” asks Giles. “There’s nothing but computers. There’s not a book to be seen.1 I don’t know where to begin, Buffy. I mean, who do we speak to?”
“Uh, that—that would be me.” Wood holds out his hand. “Hi. I’m Robin Wood.”
“Oh, uh, sorry. Yes. Uh, Rupert Giles.” They shake hands. “Sorry. Uh, Buffy tells me that you’re something of a freelance demon fighter.”
Wood indicates the open door behind Giles, and moves to close it. “Oh, yes, yes. Um…” Giles waits until the door is closed, and Wood starts back to his desk. “I, um, I’m relieved. Um, we’re running dangerously low on allies.”
Buffy sits on the edge of Wood’s desk. “So we didn’t stop it then.”
“Um, no, no.” Giles leans against the desk. “The, uh, Seers in the coven are certain the First is continuing to gather its forces. I’m afraid…war is inevitable.” Giles straightens up. “So we should go before the school board.”
“What?” asks Wood.
“Well, I can have my backup library sent from home in the meantime,” says Giles. “You know, it’s not much, but…”
Buffy tries to steer Giles back to the subject of the First, but he is too incensed over the state of the library. “Knowledge comes from crafted bindings and pages, Buffy, not ones and zeros.”
“So did you bring back any Potentials?” asks Buffy.
Giles finally lets himself be brought back to their other problems. “Um, no. Actually, my trip was about something else…” He pulls off his glasses and starts to clean them. “…that’s, um, regarding Spike.”
“Spike,” says Buffy. “What about him?”
“I told you my concerns when you recklessly chose to remove the chip from his head,” says Giles.
“Wait, sorry. Chip?” asks Wood.
“Uh, it’s a long story,” says Giles.
“The military put a chip in Spike’s head so he couldn’t hurt anyone,” says Buffy.
“That would be the abridged version.”
“But he wouldn’t hurt anyone anymore, because he has a soul now,” says Buffy.
“Unless the First triggers him again.”
“Triggers the chip?” asks Wood.
“No, the trigger’s a post-hypnotic thing,” says Buffy. “The First put it in his head. It was… Made him… He was killing again.”
“So he has a trigger, a soul, and a chip?” asks Wood.
“Not anymore,” says Giles.
“It was killing him, Giles!” says Buffy.
“The trigger?” asks Wood.
“No, the chip,” says Buffy. “The trigger’s not active anymore.”
“Because the military gave him a soul,” says Wood. Buffy and Giles both look at him. He raises his hands in surrender. “Sorry.”
Giles starts to pace. “We…don’t know that the trigger is inactive. What I brought back may help us to disarm it and to ascertain exactly what it is that causes Spike’s behaviour.”
“It was that song, Giles,” says Buffy. “I’m telling you, it was that song that Spike was singing.”
“He has no memory of it,” says Giles. “Is there any part of it that you can remember?”
“It wasn’t like it had a catchy hook or anything. You know, like, ‘I’m comin’ up, so you’d better get this party started.’ It was boring, old, and English. Just like you…” Buffy sees the way Giles is looking at her. “…ul. Brynner. Yul Brynner. A British Yul Brynner.”
“This thing you brought,” asks Wood, “to keep Spike from killing again… How’s it work?”
“Well,” says Giles, “it will require a bit of magic.”
Spike sits on his cot in Buffy’s basement. Xander locks the shackles around his wrists. “Well, we couldn’t have put these chains back up a week ago. No, we gotta work on Spike now, of all times.”
“What?” asks Spike.
“Nothin’.” Xander moves away and hands the keys to Buffy.
Spike looks up at Robin Wood. “What are you doin’ here? You came to see the show?”
“I thought you might need support.”
“Uh-huh,” says Spike. “Right. Let’s get this over with. What are you gonna do, some hypno beam or disarming spell?”
Giles steps forward. “Not exactly. The First has brainwashed you. There’s something in your subconscious that it’s using to provoke a violent reaction. So…” He holds up a small wooden box containing what looks like a small black stone. “…we have to put this in your brain.”
“Bugger that!”
“The Prokaryote Stone will move within your mind to reveal the root of the trigger’s power,” says Giles. “It can unleash ideas, images, memories. Hopefully, once you understand what it is that’s…setting you off, you can break its hold on you.”
“Hopefully?” asks Dawn. “So it might not work?”
“Well, the stone’s just a catalyst for the process,” says Giles. “The rest is up to Spike.”
“And how do you expect to get that hunk of rubble into my cranium?”
Giles looks around. “Willow?”
Willow steps forward with a book in her hands. “Okay. I just hope my pronunciation is in the ballpark.” She starts to read:
“Kun’ati belek sup’sion.
Bok’vata im kele’beshus.
Ek’vota. Mor’osh boota’ke.”
The back stone in the box transforms. It begins to undulate like a leech. “Oh, you have got to be joking,” says Spike. “What now?”
“It has to access the cerebral cortex via the optic nerve,” says Giles.
“Oh, bollocks!” says Spike. “All the rubbish people keep sticking into my head, it’s a wonder there’s any room for my brain.”
Giles looks over Spike’s head. “I don’t think it takes up that much space. Do you?” He places the box against Spike’s cheek. The Prokaryote crawls from the box, up his cheek, and into Spike’s eye. He grabs his head, and cries in pain.
“Spike!” Buffy sits beside him. “Spike, listen to me. Are you all right?”
Spike’s pain has passed. “How am I supposed to know if this bug ugly’s doin’ it’s jo…” He suddenly seems to be bathed in sunlight.
London townhouse, 1880:
Spike finds himself standing in the daylight in the parlour of a London townhouse. He hears a voice, and looks around. He see’s himself, William, still human, and reading one of his poems to his ailing mother, Anne. She’s sitting on the settee, looking up at him.
“Yet her smell, it doth linger,
Painting pictures in my mind.”
“Her eyes, balls of honey,
Angels’ harps, her laugh,
Oh, lark, grant a sign
If crook’d be cupid’s shaft.”
“Hark, the lark,
Her name it hath spake,
Cecily,it discharges,
From ’twixt its wee beak.”
His mother sighs. “Oh, William.”
William looks embarrassed. “It’s just scribbling.”
“Nonsense!” says Anne. “It’s magnificent. I wonder, though, this Cecily of whom you write so often, would that be the Underwoods’ eldest girl?”
“Uh, no, no, no.” William looks away. “I do not presume.”
“Well, she’s lovely,” says Anne. “You shouldn’t be alone. You need a woman in your life.”
William looks around at his mother. “I have a woman in my life.”
His mother’s surprised. “Well, you never… Oh.” She chuckles when she catches his meaning.
William laughs too. “Well, do not mistake me. I still have hopes that one day there will be an addition to this household. But I will always look after you, mother. This I promise.”
His mother starts to cough. She pulls a handkerchief from her sleave, and puts it to her mouth. William rushes to a nearby table, and pours his mother a goblet of water from the pitcher there. She pulls her handkerchief away from her mouth to sip the water, and William sees it has blood on it. “Shall I send a coach for Dr. Gull?”
“No. I’ll be all right.” She hands him the goblet. “Oh. Oh, it’s passed. Just sit with me a while, will you?”
“Of course.” William sits on the floor in front of the settee, and leans against his mother’s legs.
Anne picks up her needlepoint, and starts to work on it. She starts to sing softly.
“Early one morning,
Just as the sun was shining,
I heard a maid sing
In the valley below.
“‘Oh, don’t deceive me
Oh, never leave me
How could you use a poor maiden so?’”
William sits, listening contentedly to his mother’s voice. His face transforms.
Spike snarls and grabs Buffy by the throat. He throws her across the basement. He tries to lunge at the others watching, but he’s held back by his chains. He grabs his cot and throws it at them. It hits Dawn and knocks her off her feet.
Spike keeps snarling and trying to reach the others. His snarls turn into cries of pain. The Prokaryote leech crawls out of his eye and falls to the floor. It’s a hard stone again before it hits the ground.
Spike’s face returns to human. He looks around at everyone staring at him.
Spike crouches down beside the basement wall. “Get these sodding things off me. I’m fine.”
“Don’t you think you should take a little time…to calm down?” asks Buffy.
“I am calm,” says Spike. “The stone of yours is out, right? It did its job? So I’m de-triggered, right?”
“Spike, what do you remember about the song?” asks Giles.
“Oh, yeah, the song. It’s called, uh, Early One Morning,” says Spike. “Old folk ditty.
“What’s it mean to you?” asks Wood.
“Mean?” asks Spike. “Nothing. It’s just, uh, my mum. It was her favourite. She used to sing it to me… When I was a baby.”
“And?” asks Giles.
“No ‘and.’ That’s it.” Spike looks at Buffy, and points up the stairs. “Look, shouldn’t you check on Dawnie? I clocked the nibblet pretty fierce.”
“She’ll be okay,” says Buffy. “She’s tough.”
“Ow!” says Dawn. She’s sitting on the couch in the living room. Willow is cleaning the cut on her forehead while the others look on. The phone rings, and Andrew goes to answer it.
“I’m sorry,” says Willow. “It doesn’t look like anything’s broken.”
“Did you use some sort of a magic x-ray?” asks Dawn.
“Oh, that’s just what people usually say,” says Willow.
“So Spike’s trigger’s been active this entire time?” asks Kennedy. She doesn’t like the implications of that.
Rona is even less happy about it. “How can Buffy take this for granted? I mean, he lives in our house. We train with him.”
“Don’t waste your time down that road,” says Anya. “Spike’s got some sort of ‘get out of jail free card’ that doesn’t apply to the rest of us. I mean, he could slaughter 100 frat boys, and…” She sees everyone looking at her. “…forgiveness makes us human. Blahdy, blah, blah, blah.”
Andrew holds out the phone. “Uh, Willow, a call for you from L.A. Somebody named Fred. The guy sounds kind of effeminate.”2
“Look, Spike, listen to me,” says Giles. “What—what is it about your mother?”
“I don’t know,” says Spike. “I got along fine with her. She was a nice lady.”
“Well, there has to be more than that.”
“Well, there bloody well isn’t!” shouts Spike.
Buffy moves toward Spike. “What are you doing?” asks Giles.
“I’m going to unchain him,” says Buffy.
Giles grabs her. “Buffy, listen.”
“This is pointless, Giles, okay?” says Buffy. “He doesn’t know anything. Your prophylactic stone didn’t work.”
“Because he’s not cooperating,” whispers Giles. “This process takes time. He’s blocking whatever is flooding his consciousness. And while he does, he’s endangering us all.”
“So the trigger’s still working?” asks Wood.
“As much as ever,” says Giles.
Spike pulls at his chains. He looks at his hand. He sees a delicate woman’s hand, in a black lace glove slip into it.
London townhouse, 1880:
Spike looks up and sees Drusilla. “Ooh, such a pretty house you have, sweet Willie.” They dance around the sitting room. “It smells of daffodils…and viscera.”3
“Don’t get too attached now,” says Spike. “Won’t be here for long, Luv.”
“Well, then…” Dru sits in the settee. “…shall we give it a proper good-bye?” She growls at him.
Spike sits beside Dru. “You’re a saucy one, aren’t you?” He grabs her and pulls her into his lap for a kiss. “Mmm. Oh, Dru…we’ll bring this world to its knees.”
“It’s ripe and ready, my darling, waitin’ for us to devour its fruit,” says Dru.
“We’ll ravage this city together, my pet,” says Spike. “Lay waste to all of Europe. The three of us will teach the snobs and elitists with their folderol just what—”
Drusilla pulls away a bit. “Three?”
“You, me, and mother,” says Spike. “We’ll open up their veins and bathe in their blood as they scream our names across the…” He sees the way Drusilla is looking at him. “What?”
“You…you wanna bring your mum with us?” asks Dru.
“Well, yeah,” says Spike. “You’ll like her.”
“Hmm.” Drusilla almost laughs. “To eat, you mean?”
Spike hears unsteady footsteps approaching. He looks up and sees his mother standing in the doorway leaning on a walking stick. “William?”
Spike gets up from the settee. “Ah. Mother.”
“Where have you been?” asks Anne. “I’ve been beside myself for days.”
“You needn’t have worried, mother,” says Spike. “You’ll never have to worry about anything again. Something…has happened. I’ve changed.”
Anne is confused. “I—I—I don’t…” She sees Drusilla, who has stood up behind Spike. “Who is this woman?”
“I’m the other that gave birth to your son,” says Dru.
“I beg your pardon?” asks Anne.
“It’s true, mother.” Spike reaches back and takes Dru’s hand. She steps up beside him. “Drusilla, she… she has made me what I am. I am no longer bound to this mortal coil. I have become a creature of the night. A vampire.”
“Are you drunk?” asks his mother. Drusilla stares at her, and rubs her stomach.
“A little bit,” says Spike. His mother starts to cough, Spike lets go of Dru’s hand and slowly walks toward her. “Think of it. No more sickness. No more dying. You’ll never age another day. Let me do this for you.”
“What are you talking about?” asks Anne. “And why are you acting so strangely?”
“It’s all right, Mother. It’s only me,” whispers Spike. He hugs her. “ We’ll be together forever.” His face transforms. “It only hurts…for a moment.” He pulls aside the collar of her robe. His fangs sink into her neck.
Willow comes down the stairs into the basement. “Buffy? Hey, I, uh, just got a phone call. I’m gonna have to take off for a while. Maybe a day or two.”
“What’s wrong?” asks Buffy.
“Nothing you need to worry about,” says Willow. “I’ll give you the full scoop later. Maybe I’ll even bring back some good news.”
Buffy sighs, and looks around the basement. “I could use a little of that. Okay, I mean, I guess now is as good a time as we’re likely to see for a while. Just hurry back.”
“Will do.” Willow turns around and goes back up the stairs. Buffy goes back to Spike and starts to unlock him.
“Think about what you’re doing,” says Giles.
“I have,” says Buffy.
“Buffy.”
“Don’t!” says Buffy. She and Spike go up the stairs. Giles starts to follow them.
“Mr. Giles?” Wood calls Giles back. “You got a moment?”
“What’s on your mind?” asks Giles.
“Same thing that’s on yours,” says Wood. “We got ourselves a problem.”
“Spike.”
“Yeah,” says Wood. “If that trigger’s still working, then the First must be waiting for just the right time to use it against us.”
“Does seem doubtful the First simply forgot it had such a powerful weapon.”
“Now a while back, it slipped up—” says Wood. “Told Andrew it wasn’t time yet for Spike. “So whatever the First’s ultimate plan is, it’s obvious that Spike must play an integral part in that. Something needs to be done.”
“Buffy would never allow it,” says Giles.
“Buffy would listen to her Watcher, wouldn’t she?”
“Oh, yes,” says Giles sarcastically. “Well, you don’t know very much about the Watcher-Slayer dynamic.”
“As a matter of fact, I was raised by a Watcher,” says Wood.
Giles is surprised to hear that. “You were?”
“Bernard Crowley,” says Wood. “Took me in when I was a young kid, trained me.”
“Crowley,” says Giles. “Well, I remember the name. New York based Watcher, isn’t he? Resigned shortly after his Slayer was…” Giles suddenly understands. “You’re Nikki Wood’s son.”
“Yes.”
“Spike killed your mother.”
“Yes.”
Giles considers the implications for a moment. “Does Buffy know this?”
“She knows my mother was a Slayer,” says Wood. “She…doesn’t know about Spike.”
“And this has nothing to do with personal vengeance,” says Giles.
“Does it matter?” asks Wood. “He’s an instrument of evil. Now he’s gonna prove to be our undoing in this fight—Buffy’s undoing—and she will never, never see it coming. Now I’m talking about what needs to be done. For the greater good, Giles. And you know I’m right.”
Giles stops and thinks. He looks up at the ceiling for a moment. “What exactly do you propose?”
“I just need you to keep Buffy away for a few hours.”
Giles and Buffy walk through a cemetery together. “I don’t know, Giles,” she says. “Is this really a primo time for a training session?”
“I’m still your teacher, Buffy,” says Giles. “As adept as you are as a Slayer, there are always new things to learn. Now more than ever it’s…crucial to maintain focus on your calling.”
“In case you haven’t noticed, our plates are kinda full right now,” says Buffy. “Plus, I’m not really sure how I feel about leaving Spike at Robin’s house to watch over him.”
“For what it’s worth, everyone at your house seemed quite relieved at the arrangement,” says Giles. “Um, Buffy…uh, though I’m not technically your Watcher anymore…the fact that your life is in such chaos only underscores the importance of the lessons I can impart to you.”
“Fine.” Buffy sits on a headstone. “Impart away.”
“We’re on the verge of war,” says Giles. “It’s time we looked at the big picture.”
“Hello? All I do is look at the big picture,” says Buffy. “The other day, I gave an inspirational speech to the telephone repairman.”
“It takes more than rousing speeches to lead, Buffy. If you’re gonna be a general, you need to be able to make difficult decisions regardless of cost.”
Buffy stands up. “Have you seen me with those girls?” She turns and walks away from Giles. “I mean, the way I’ve treated my friends and my family and Andrew?” She turns back. “Believe me, I know how to make hard decisions.”
“Well, that’s what we’re here to find out…” A vampire’s arm bursts from the ground of a fresh grave. “…while we work on the basics.”
Wood removes a padlock from the door of a garage. “Live in the garage?” asks Spike.
“It’s just a work room,” says Wood. “Kind of my, uh, sanctuary.” He opens the door and goes inside.
Spike follows Wood into the darkened garage. “A little place to unwind, eh? A hard day’s principaling got you down, you need a place to cut loose, let your hair down…” Wood closes the door behind Spike. “…so to speak.”
Wood flips on the lights, and Spike looks around. “What the bloody hell is this?” The walls of the garage are covered with crosses.
“I told you, it’s my, um, sanctuary,” says Wood. “It’s the Hellmouth, Spike. You can never be too careful. Just, um…stay away from the walls. You’ll be all right.”
“It’s a bit much, isn’t it?” asks Spike. “What’s your story… Wood?”
Wood walks over to the only furnishing in the garage. A table with an iMac on it. “No story, really. Just…tryin’ to do what’s right.” He clicks on the mouse to activate the computer. “Make a difference.” He looks back at Spike. “How about you? What kind of man are you, Spike?”
“Sorry,” says Spike. “Not much for self-reflection.”
Wood turns back to the computer. “Yeah, makes sense.” He starts to unbutton his shirt. “See, you strike me as the kind of guy who just careens through life…completely oblivious of the damage he’s doing to everyone around him.” He takes off his shirt and opens a drawer in the table. He pulls out some metal studded gauntlets.
“That right?” asks Spike.
“Oh, I know more about you than you think, Spike.” Wood puts on the gauntlets. “See, I’ve been searching for you for a very, very long time.” Wood turns to face him. “Every since you killed my mother.”
Spike watches Wood warily. “I killed a lot of people’s mothers.”
“Yeah. You’d remember mine,” says Wood. “She was a Slayer.”
“So that’s it, isn’t it?” asks Spike. “Brought me here to kill me?”
“No. I don’t wanna kill you, Spike. I wanna kill the monster who took my mother away from me.” Wood turns back to the computer, and selects a song in iTunes. He clicks his mouse again, and Early One Morning starts to play from the computer’s speakers.
Spike tries to fight it, but he can’t. His face transforms, and he snarls.
“Oh,” says Wood. “There he is.”
London, 1880:
Spike returns home. He goes into the sitting room and tosses his jacket over the back of a chair. He sees that the settee where he left his mother’s body is empty. Her walking stick is leaning against it. “Mother?”
He hears a music box playing Early One Morning and turns toward the sound. He sees his mother, looking strong and healthy. “Hello, William.”
Spike smiles. “Look at you.”
“Mmm, yes,” says Anne. “All better.”
“You’re glowing,” says Spike.
“Am I?” Anne looks at her hands. “Well, I suppose I have you to thank for that, don’t I? However will I repay you?”
“Seeing you like this is payment enough,” says Spike.
“Oh, William. You’re so… “ Anne laughs and touches his cheek. “…tender.”
“Well, this is as it should be, Mother,” says Spike. “You and I together. All of London laid out before us.”
“Ah, yes,” says Anne. “Us, hmm.”
“First, we’ll feast,” says Spike. “Then the night is yours. The theater, perhaps? Dancing? Tell me. What’s your pleasure?”
“Pleasure?” asks Anne. “To take my leave of you, of course. ‘The lark hath spake from ’twixt its wee beak.’ You honestly thought I could bear an eternity listening to that twaddle?”
Sunnydale, 2003:
Spike snarls at Wood. Wood punches Spike. “That’s right, dog, bite back!” Spike swings at Wood, but Wood blocks him and hits him again.
London:
“I feel extraordinary.” Anne twirls around the sitting room. “It’s as though I’ve been given new eyes. I see everything.” She sits on the settee and looks up at Spike. “Understand…everything.”
“Mother.”
Anne stands up again. “I hate to be cruel.” She thinks about that for a second. “No, I don’t. I used to hate to be cruel in life. Now I find it rather freeing. Nothing less will pry your greedy little fingers off my apron strings, will it.”
“Stop, please,” says Spike.
“Ever since the day you first slithered from me like a parasite.”
Sunnydale:
Wood blocks Spike’s punches, and hits him again.
London:
Spike slowly backs away from his mother as she approaches him. “What are you s—”
“Had I known better,” says Anne, “I could have spared myself a lifetime of tedium, and just…”
Sunnydale:
Wood grabs Spike and shoves him up against a cross covered wall.
London:
Spike has been backed up against the wall.
“…dashed your brains out when I first saw you,” says his mother.
Sunnydale:
Wood presses Spike’s face against one of the crosses on the garage wall. He cries in pain.
London:
“God, I prayed you’d find a woman to release me,” says Anne. “But you scarcely showed an interest. Who could compare to your doddering housebound Mum… A captive audience for your witless prattle?”
Sunnydale:
Spike pushes Wood away.
London:
Spike moves toward his mother. “Whatever I was, that’s not who I am anymore.”
“Darling…that’s who you’ll always be,” says Anne. “A limp, sentimental fool.”
Sunnydale:
Spike charges at Wood and gets kicked into the bookshelves. He lies stunned on the floor. Wood stands over him. “Hurts, don’t it? That’s what it felt like?” He bends down and grabs Spike by the collar and punches him. “You beat the life out of her?” He punches Spike again. “Toyed with her?” Punch. “When you snapped her neck?”
Buffy throws the vampire to the ground. She pins it down with a knee on its chest and raises her stake.
“Don’t kill him yet,” says Giles.
Buffy looks around at him. “What? Why not?”
“Because I’m asking you not to,” says Giles.
Buffy rolls away from the vamp, and they both get to their feet.
“Would you let this vampire live if it meant saving the world?”
“Sure.” Buffy punches the vampire. “Seems like a nice enough guy.”
“Thanks,” says the vampire.
“No problem,” says Buffy.
“My name’s Richard,” says the vamp.
“Hi, Rich.” Buffy kicks Richard to the ground, and turns back to Giles. “Giles, we had this conversation when I told you that I wouldn’t sacrifice Dawn to stop Glory from destroying the world.”
“Ah, yes,” says Giles. “But things are different now, aren’t they, after what you’ve been through? Faced with the same choice now…you’d let her die.”
Buffy pauses for a moment. “If I had to…to save the world. Yes.” Richard uses her distraction to attack Buffy from behind. He knocks her face first into a headstone, and grabs her.
“Can I kill this guy yet?” asks Buffy.
“No,” says Giles.
Buffy breaks free from Richard and punches him.
“So you really do understand the difficult decisions you’ll have to make,” says Giles. “That any one of us is expendable in this war?”
“Have you heard my speeches?” Buffy fends Richard off with one hand.
“That we cannot allow any threat that may jeopardize our chances of winning.”
Buffy flips Richard to the ground. “Yes, I get it.”
“And yet, there is Spike,” says Giles.
Buffy stops and looks at him. Richard tackles her.
Wood looks down at Spike, and removes his gauntlets. “Animal like you…never cared for anyone but yourself. No one else mattered.” He grabs his shirt and puts it on. “Just…all about the hunt.” He reaches down and strips off Spike’s leather duster, the one Spike had taken off Nikki’s body. He folds it and puts it on the table beside the computer.
Wood breaks a cross off the wall and walks back toward Spike.
London:
“You want to run, don’t you?” asks Anne. “Scamper off and cry to your new little trollop? Do you think you’ll be able to love her?” She presses up against him. “Think you’ll be able to touch her without feeling me, hmm? All you’ve ever wanted was to be back inside.” She runs her hands over Spike, as he tries to push her away. “You finally got your wish, didn’t you? Sank your teeth into me, an eternal kiss.”
“No,” says Spike. “I only wanted to make you well.”
“You wanted your hands on me.” Anne keeps pressing against him. “Perhaps you’d like a chance to finish off what you started?”
“I loved you.” Spike tries to push her away. “I did. Not like this.”
“Just like this. This is what you’ve always wanted. Who’s my dark little prince?” She tries to kiss him.
“No!” Spike shoves her away. She falls down onto the settee.
“Get out.” Anne grabs her walking stick. “Get out!” She swings it at him.
Spike grabs the walking stick, and it breaks against the fireplace mantle. He’s left holding a sharp end of it.
Anne’s face transforms. “There, there, precious. It will only hurt for a moment.”
Spike looks at the vampire who was his mother. “I’m sorry.”
Sunnydale:
Wood lowers the cross. “What?”
“I’m sorry,” says Spike.
London:
Spike stabs the broken end of the walking stick into Anne’s heart. He watches as the vampire who was his mother transforms back into her human form, before she vanishes into dust.
Sunnydale:
Spike catches Wood’s arm as the broken end of the cross plunges toward his heart. Spike is showing his human face again. He throws Wood away across the room, and gets to his feet.
Wood looks at Spike. “Sorry? You think ‘sorry’ is gonna make everything right?”
“I wasn’t talking to you,” says Spike.
Wood spins and kicks at Spike, but Spike dodges easily, and blocks his next punch. He punches Wood away. “I don’t give a piss about your mum. She was a Slayer. I was a vampire.” Spike kicks Wood in the head. “That’s the way the game is played.”
Wood gets back to his feet. “Game?” He attacks Spike again, and gets beaten to the floor.
Wood rolls back to his feet. Spike jumps up, grabs an overhead beam, and kicks Wood away with both feet, “She knew what she was signing up for.”
Wood climbs back to his feet. “Well, I didn’t sign up for it.”
“Well, that’s the rub, isn’t it?” asks Spike. “You didn’t sign up for it, and somehow, it’s my fault.”
“You took my childhood.” Wood attacks, and Spike fends him off. “You took her away. She was all I had. She was my world!”
Spike knocks Wood away across the garage. “And you weren’t hers. Doesn’t that piss you off?”
“Shut up,” says Wood. “You didn’t know her!” He kicks at Spike.
Spike grabs Wood’s leg and holds it. He keeps holding it as he throws Wood to the floor. “I know Slayers.” He uses the leg to throw Wood against the wall. “No matter how many people they’ve got around them, they fight alone. Life of the Chosen One. The rest of us be damned. Your mother was no different.”
Wood tries to pick himself up off the floor, but he can’t. “No. She… She loved me.”
“But not enough to quit now was it?” Spike bends down over Wood. “Not enough to walk away…for you.” He crouches down beside him, Wood looks away. “I’ll tell you a story about a mother and son. See, like you, I loved my mother. So much so, I turned her into a vampire.” Wood turns to look at him. “Yeah. So we could be together forever. She said some nasty bits to me after I did that. Been weighing on me for quite some time. But you helped me figure something out. You see, unlike you, I had a mother who loved me back. When I sired her, I set loose a demon, and it tore into me. But it was a demon talking, not her.” Spike stands up. “I realize that now. My mother loved me…with all her heart. I was her world.”
Spike walks back over to the computer. He selects the song again, and starts to play it. He listens to it for a moment. “That’s a nice little song you got there.” He turns off the computer and walks back toward Wood. “Thanks, Doc. You cured me after all. I got my own free will now. I’m not under the First or anyone else’s influences now. I just wanted you to know that…” Spike’s face transforms. “…before I kill you.”
Spike grabs Wood by the collar and lifts him up. He pushes him against the wall and his fangs close on Wood’s neck.
Giles walks around her while Buffy pounds on Richard. “Spike’s a liability, Buffy. He refuses to see it, and so do you. Angel left here because he realized how harmful your relationship with him was. Spike, on the other hand, lacks such self-awareness.”
Buffy lets up on Richard for a bit and turns back to Giles. “Spike is here because I want him here. We need him. I’m in the fight of my life.”
“Really?” asks Richard.
“Not you, Richard.” Buffy punches him again.
“You want Spike here even after what he’s done to you in the past?” asks Giles.
“It’s different now,” says Buffy. “He has a soul!”
“And the First is exploiting that to his advantage.”
“Oh, my god.” Buffy stakes Richard. “You’re stalling me. You’re keeping me away—”
“It’s time to stop playing the role of general and to start being one,” says Giles. Buffy starts to run. “This is the way wars are won!” Giles calls after her.
Buffy sees Spike coming out of the garage. He’s pulling on his duster. “Spike. What happened?”
Spike sighs. He turns back and pushes open the door so she can see Wood inside. He’s sitting slumped against the wall, barely conscious.
“Oh, my god,” says Buffy.
“I gave him a pass…let him live,” says Spike. “On account of the fact I killed his mother, but that’s all he gets. He even so much as looks at me funny again, I’ll kill him.” He turns and leaves.
Buffy enters the garage. She crosses to Wood, and helps him to his feet. He leans against the wall to support himself.
Buffy looks around the garage, at all the crosses on the walls before she turns back to Wood. “I lost my mom…a couple years ago. I came home, and I found her dead on the couch.”
“I’m sorry,” gasps Wood.
“I understand what you tried to do,” says Buffy. “But she’s dead.”
“Because he murdered her,” says Wood.
“I’m preparing to fight a war, and you’re looking for revenge on a man that doesn’t exist anymore,” says Buffy.
“Buffy, don’t delude yourself,” says Wood. “That man still exists.”
“Spike is the strongest warrior we have, and we are gonna need him if we’re gonna come out of this thing alive,” says Buffy. “You try anything again, he’ll kill you. More importantly…I’ll let him.” Wood looks up at her. “I have a mission: to win this war. To save the world. I don’t have time for vendettas.” Buffy turns and walks toward the exit. “The mission is what matters.”
Buffy sits on Dawn’s bed and looks at her sleeping sister. She lightly brushes her hand across the bandage on Dawn’s forehead. She gets up and goes through the door into her own room, she quietly closes it behind her.
The door into the hallway is open, and Giles is standing there. “Buffy. I… I—I understand your anger. Please believe me. We—we did what we—”
Buffy refuses to look at Giles. “He’s alive. Spike’s alive. Wood failed.”
“Well, that doesn’t change anything.” Giles leans against the doorframe. “What I told you is still true. You need to learn—”
“No.” Buffy finally turns and looks at Giles. “I think you’ve taught me everything I need to know.” She closes the door between them.
| Who or What | Where | How |
|---|---|---|
| Vampire 1 | Alley | Staked by Spike |
| Vampire 2 | Alley | Staked by Spike |
| Vampire 3 | Alley | Staked by Buffy (Don’t actually see her do it, but it’s a pretty good bet) |
| William’s mother Anne | London townhouse, 1880 | Killed and vamped by Spike |
| The vampire Richard | Cemetery | Staked by Buffy |
| The vampire Anne | London townhouse, 1880 | Staked by Spike |